MELISSA HAYDEN TO TAPE VIDEO SERIES FOR <BR>THE GEORGE BALANCHINE FOUNDATION <P>Hi everyone, look what I've found:<P>Dancers with American Ballet Theatre and New York City Ballet to be Featured in Coaching Sessions on Stars and Stripes and Donizetti Variations <P>New York City--Melissa Hayden, outstanding classical and dramatic ballerina with <BR>the New York City Ballet for many years, will teach and coach roles Balanchine created for her for the cameras of The George Balanchine Foundation's Interpreters Archive. Taping will commence November 16 and 17, with a second shoot scheduled for November 22 and 23, at City Center Studio #5, 130 West 56th Street, New York City. <BR>Ms. Hayden will work with Gillian Murphy, a soloist with American Ballet Theatre, who was her student. Ms. Murphy will be joined by New York City Ballet principal dancers Charles Askegard (Stars and Stripes) and Peter Boal (Donizetti Variations). Balanchine scholar and Director of Research for the Foundation <BR>Nancy Reynolds will oversee the project and interview Ms. Hayden. Ms.Reynolds danced with the New York City Ballet at the time both ballets were created. She initiated the video archives program in 1994 and has directed the <BR>production of more than twenty projects with many of Balanchine's leading dancers. <BR>Master tapes of the archives are housed at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts and copies may now be viewed in some 35 research libraries around the world. "I'm looking forward to being reminded at close hand of Melissa's steely footwork and mastery of intricate technical challenges, which she was somehow able--almost incongruously--to combine with a sense of fun and an ever-so-subtle <BR>flirtation with the audience," Ms. Reynolds remarked. <BR>Stars and Stripes (1958), to the music of John Philip Sousa, is one of several Balanchine salutes to America, his adopted country. This full-company ballet, complete with baton twirling, military marching, and a regiment of rifle-bearing females, culminates in a showy and challenging pas de deux, originally danced by Melissa Hayden and Jacques d'Amboise. At the time, P.W. Manchester noted with some amusement that "[the two] piled climax upon climax until the audience was in a state of almost gibbering excitement" (Dance News, October 1958). <BR>In quite another vein is the bubbling, cheerful Donizetti Variations (originally <BR>called Variations from "Don Sebastian"), choreographed by Balanchine in 1960 for Melissa Hayden, Jonathan Watts, and a small corps de ballet. Because of the ballet's compact size and fluent, non-stop, "dancey" steps, it has become a great favorite with companies and dance afficionados throughout the country.<BR>"Melissa's performance in both of these ballets was always a pleasure," concluded Ms. Reynolds, "Unquestionably, her interpretations of the original choreography will provide skillful insight into the roles." <BR>

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